Unveiled jointly by Pattabhi Rama Rao, Managing Director,

Gourmet Popcornica, and Thomas Peace, Director of Sales, Preferred Popcorn

(USA), at Gourmet Popcornica stall

Lucknow/Chennai, 18 Aug (HS): Gourmet Popcornica, Asia's

largest, and the world’s fifth largest, grower and processor of popcorn maize,

today unveiled The Husk — its new global brand icon — at its stall at Big Cine

Expo 2026, held at the Chennai Trade Centre. The unveiling was performed

jointly by SBP Pattabhi Rama Rao, Managing Director, Gourmet Popcornica, and

Thomas Peace, Director of Sales at Preferred Popcorn, the company's

long-standing international partner, based in the United States.

Every kernel of corn, before it becomes popcorn, before it

becomes anything at all, it is held inside a husk: nature's first act of

care.The Husk is a hand-drawn mark shaped like a corn husk mid-unfurl — an

outer curve that protects, and an inner line that reveals. It is designed to

become as instantly recognisable to Indian consumers as an iconic mark is to a

global one: a single symbol that will appear across every Gourmet Popcornica

bag, facility, and communication going forward.

“The Husk represents everything we have built over the last

decade.It stands for the protection we extend to our more than 17,500 farmer

partners across eight states in India, for the world-class quality we have

proven can be grown on Indian soil, and for the innovation that connects the

two. Unveiling it here, at Big Cine Expo, in the very industry that popularised

popcorn for generations of Indians, felt like the right place to begin this new

chapter,”said SBP Pattabhi Rama Rao, Managing Director, Gourmet PopcornicaPvt.

Ltd.

“We have watched Gourmet Popcornica grow from a single-state

operation into a global-scale supplier over the years of our partnership,” said

Thomas Peace, Director of Sales, Preferred Popcorn, USA. “The Husk is a fitting

identity for that journey — it is a mark that speaks to quality, care for the

farmer, and ambition – values that, we, at Preferred Popcorn recognise well and

are proud to stand alongside.”

The unveiling took place at Big Cine Expo 2026, Asia's

leading trade show and convention for the cinema exhibition and theatrical

distribution industry, held August 18–19 at the Chennai Trade Centre. Popcorn

has long been inseparable from the cinema experience, making the Expo a fitting

stage for Gourmet Popcornica to introduce the mark that will now represent it

to audiences across the country.

Founded in Andhra Pradesh in 2016, Gourmet Popcornica today

works with over 17,500 farmers cultivating 39,500 acres of popcorn maize across

eight Indian states, making it the largest in Asia and the world's

fifth-largest grower of popcorn maize within a single decade. Its unique

farming model — under which farmers invest land and labour while the company

funds inputs, technology, and guaranteed offtake — has lifted farmer incomes by

approximately 40 percent.

The company operates Asia's largest popcorn processing

facility in Musunuru, Andhra Pradesh, with four processing lines handling 29

tonnes per hour, alongside India's largest popcorn-specific cold storage

network of 45,000 tonnes and the country's largest ready-to-cook popcorn premix

plant. Gourmet Popcornica was also the first to demonstrate that high-quality,

non-GMO popcorn maize, on par with American benchmarks, could be successfully

cultivated in India, and has extended popcorn cultivation to tribal farmers in

Kondagoan, Chhattisgarh, and Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi